The present invention relates to gasoline dispensers and, more particularly, to gasoline dispensers that use an antenna to receive radio frequency identification signals from a customer's vehicle to automatically identify the customer, authorize the sale of products or services to the customer, and to subsequently bill the customer's charge account for the products or services. The present invention is particularly useful in a service station environment where customers may purchase fuel for their vehicles, obtain a car wash, or purchase other items such as food, drinks, or sundries from a convenience store, or drive-through window, that may be located on the premises.
Typically, when a customer purchases fuel at a service station, the customer presents payment, in the form of cash or credit/debit card, to the service station attendant either before or after fueling. The attendant must control the activation of the dispenser to allow fueling. If payment is required before fueling may begin, the attendant must activate a switch, typically near the cash register, in order to unlock the dispenser to allow fueling to begin. Once fueling has been completed and the dispenser nozzle has been returned to its seat, the attendant manually resets the dispenser again through activation of a switch at the cash register.
In order to improve efficiency in the payment process, many service stations are now equipped with credit/debit card readers at the dispensers for direct use by the customer. In these arrangements, customer-activated-terminals are provided, each having a card reader, a display which displays messages to the customer, a key pad for use by the customer to make fueling and payment selections, a printer for printing receipts, and individual price displays corresponding to the individual fuel dispensing nozzles of the dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,380 issued to Robert E. Randelman et al. takes this payment automation one step further by disclosing an automatic vehicle recognition and customer billing system that may be used in a service station environment. The system automatically recognizes vehicles and correlates the purchase of products and services with the vehicle. The system of the '380 patent includes an antenna embedded in the ground near a gasoline dispensing pump. The antenna is connected to a controller located in a housing near the antenna. The controller controls the output of a radio frequency signal from the antenna and can detect an RF input signal. The antenna is always energized and, therefore, creates an electromagnetic field at a predetermined radio frequency in the fueling area. The system of the '380 patent also includes an emitter (or card) affixed to a vehicle. The card comprises an RF coil and integrated circuit component. When the card crosses the electromagnetic field, the electromagnetic field energizes the card. The activated card then emits an encoded electromagnetic pulse signal. The controller receives the signal and converts it into a data bit stream. A computer receives the data bit stream from the controller and in turn utilizes the data for displaying information on the pump display, for controlling the fuel dispenser, and for billing purposes.
One disadvantage of the '380 patent is that the antenna which emits the electromagnetic field is embedded in the ground near the fuel dispenser. The installation of such an antenna (or antennas where there is more than one dispenser) can be costly and can create a fire hazard from fueling spills or leaks from the fuel storage tanks typically located under ground near the fuel dispensers. Furthermore, where multiple dispensers are present and therefore multiple antennas and controllers are present, the system does not adequately prevent a vehicle card from being activated by more than one antenna at a time and detected by more than one controller at a time, such as may happen where antennas are positioned near each other and therefore interfere with one another. Furthermore, the system does not prevent the inadvertent detection of vehicle cards not intended to be used in a fueling transaction.
Another disadvantage of the '380 patent is in connection with service stations that provide for separate fueling from both sides of a dispenser and/or from several closely-spaced rows of dispensers. With the system of the '380 patent applied to such a dispenser arrangement, the vehicle card of a vehicle stopped between antennas may be detected by the wrong controller, i.e., one not associated with the dispenser where the vehicle is actually receiving fuel, or may wrongly be detected by a controller, i.e., where the vehicle is stopped near an antenna but is not fueling.
Other automatic identification systems exist that employ radio frequency technology. For example, Texas Instruments Incorporated of Dallas, Tex., markets a number of radio frequency identification systems referred to commercially as its TIRIS.TM. (Texas Instruments Registration and Identification Systems) product line. The TIRIS.TM. product line includes radio frequency transponders (read-only as well as read-write) that may be low frequency or high frequency in their operation and which may be attached to or embedded in objects or may be hand-held. Readers, through antennas, send out radio frequency waves to the transponders, and the transponders broadcast stored data back to the reader for processing. One suggested application of the TIRIS.TM. product line is a fuel dispensing system (where a transponder is mounted beside the vehicle's fuel tank and a transceiver is mounted on the fuel dispensing nozzle). The fuel dispensing system application, however, is not desirable because maintenance of the fuel dispensing nozzle with the transceiver can present a service problem as well as a replacement problem and, furthermore, the location of the transponder and transceiver can create a fire hazard.
Copending U.S patent application Ser. No. 08/768,723 is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and solves these problems by providing a radio frequency customer identification system and method which determines whether a transponder containing customer identification data is within range of a gasoline dispenser. The dispenser is designed to require activation by the customer to initiate a transaction, and an antenna is associated with each dispensing area of the dispenser and is mounted to the tops of the dispensers. Readers housed in the dispensers send radio frequency power pulses to the antennas which in turn direct the power pulses to create electromagnetic fields. The antennas are optimally positioned so that the electromagnetic fields cover predetermined areas near the dispenser.
The antennas also pick-up customer identification data that is broadcast by the transponders. In particular, if a vehicle-mounted transponder enters the electromagnetic field created by a long-range antenna, the vehicle-mounted transponder will become activated and broadcast its customer identification ("CID") code. The antenna detects the CID code and sends the code to the associated reader for decoding and processing. A processor is connected to the reader and to the dispenser for associating customer identification data received at the dispensing area with a transaction at the dispenser, whereupon the transaction at the dispenser is charged to the customer according to the customer identification data. The disclosure of this patent application is incorporated by reference.
The arrangement disclosed in this patent application overcomes the above-noted problems with the prior art by providing a reliable, safe, customer-friendly identification system that can automatically identify customer purchasing services or products at a service station, and bill the customer's account for any purchases made.
However, the design of the above-described antenna used in the system disclosed in the patent application is such that it must project laterally from its respective dispenser, and, as such, is susceptible to being struck by vehicles as they pass by the dispenser. If this occurs, the antenna can be severely and permanently damaged, often requiring shut down of the dispenser while the antenna is replaced.